Vote fails to kill island casino plan

An Aquinnah tribal casino appears likely to move forward after opponents failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority in a referendum to kill the idea, a tribe leader said Tuesday.

GEORGE BRENNAN

An Aquinnah tribal casino appears likely to move forward after opponents failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority in a referendum to kill the idea, a tribe leader said Tuesday.

The Feb. 16 referendum sought to overturn a vote in May 2012 by the membership of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to turn an unfinished community center on Martha's Vineyard into a high-stakes bingo hall equipped with machines that look like slot machines.

"(The referendum) failed by three votes," Beverly Wright, chairwoman of the town's Board of Selectmen and a tribe member, said Tuesday.

It's unclear how many voters were at the meeting, but there had to be 35 or more to have a quorum.

Wright supports the tribe's rights to a casino under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, but opposes a casino on Martha's Vineyard, she said.

"It's our traditional homelands and our ancestors fought tooth and nail to keep our lands," Wright said. "To desecrate our lands is not something I'm in favor of. We're a small town, a two-lane road. What about traffic? What (about) septic? What about water? What about parking?"

According to the tribe's constitution, the referendum can't be brought before tribe members for another year, Wright said. "I don't know of anyone in the town who is in favor of the facility being built in Aquinnah," she said.

Tobias Vanderhoop, chairman of the tribal council, said by email he will follow the will of the voters. "In this case the people have spoken and, with the outcome of the February 16th referendum, the previous actions of the general membership and the tribal council stand and the tribe will move forward with the on-island gaming project," he wrote.

Vanderhoop vowed to work with local officials and the business community. "Even though we have all the approvals required for us to proceed, the tribe will reach out to our sister governments on the island, hear any concerns that they may have, and attempt in good faith to mitigate those concerns," he wrote.

The idea for a Vineyard casino gained traction in November after the tribe released an Oct. 25 opinion from a key official with the National Indian Gaming Commission saying tribal lands on the island are eligible for a gambling facility.

Federal Indian gaming laws prohibit states from regulating casinos such as the one proposed for the island. States can have some say in a Class III-style casino, also known as a Vegas-style casino, through a negotiated compact.

The federal commission's opinion is counter to the long-standing position of the Patrick administration that the tribe ceded its federal rights to a casino in a land settlement approved by Congress in 1987. Patrick has refused to negotiate with the Aquinnah as a result.

The legal opinion of the commission is that the Indian gaming act trumps settlement acts such as the one the Aquinnah signed.

The dispute is currently being argued in legal briefs in U.S. District Court in Boston.

On Dec. 2, Patrick filed suit with a single justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court seeking to block an island casino, but tribe attorneys recently had the case moved to federal court. In the latest brief filed Monday, tribe attorneys seek to have the case remain in federal court where the question of whether the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act supersedes the tribe's land settlement is best answered, according to court documents.

At issue is language in the settlement act that requires the tribe to follow state and local laws. In its arguments, the state points to a case that went to the state's highest court requiring the tribe to obtain a zoning permit. Lawyers for the tribe counter that argument by pointing out the zoning case did not involve gambling.

The state argues that the tribe's plan is a breach of contract that belongs before a state court, while tribe attorneys argue that the complaint presents "a substantial federal question which permeates the asserted state law claims."

The ongoing case, as well as the tribe's vow to open an island casino, remains a wild card in the ongoing discussion of licensing commercial casinos in the Bay State.

On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission began deliberations that are expected to culminate Friday in issuing the state's first license for a slot parlor. Commissioner James McHugh briefly mentioned the Aquinnah proposal, though he acknowledged not knowing much about it because it's not under the state Gaming Commission's purview.

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